Aracnor Part 2:Christmas
by ViewtifulDarnell
Summary: Jason just wants to spend a quiet Christmas at the X-Mansion with Kitty. But when you're a superhero and you're girlfriend is Jewish then it's easier said than done.
1. Holiday Arrangements

---December...---

"Don't let me catch you again," I called to a man running away. Lately I was letting off a lot of crooks. I kind of had to. It was mainly because they weren't criminals, they were family guys who wanted to get big presents for their family but couldn't afford them. They made the mistake to try and steal them. I just let them off with a warning because I knew they weren't thinking and that their familes don't need their husband/dad jailed for Christmas. If I were a less nice person I'd probably treat them just like any other criminal but lucky for them I'm nothing like Wolverine. I finally finished up and went back to the X-Mansion. I still needed to get Kitty a Christmas present so I started working over time at the comic shop to get some extra money.

"You don't need to get me something expensive," Kitty told me when I walked out of the locker room.

"But I want to," I told Kitty.

"You know I'm Jewish right?" Kitty asked.

"Kitty seriously, I'm fine with it. Don't worry. You can stop fooling around," I reassured her.

"Jason I AM Jewish!" Kitty yelled at me.

"Really?" I asked surprised. I seriously did think Kitty was joking.

"Yes!" Kitty yelled again. "I don't see how you could have thought I was joking!"

"I didn't know..." I muttered.

"How did you not know? I mean hello, look at this," Kitty shoved her wrist in my face and showed me her braclet. It had a Star Of David on it. "You're telling me you NEVER noticed that? Not once?" Kitty went on.

"No..." she was making me feel like crap at this point. I had no idea she felt so strongly about it.

Kitty didn't say anything. She kind of just stood there pouting and looking at the ground. "Kitty," I started as I put my hand on her shoulder. She shrugged me away. "I'm sorry. I really am," I put both of my hands on her shoulders and stared into the side of her face. She still wasn't looking at me.

"Do really think just saying sorry is going to make it better?" she asked me. She'd finally looked up, her eyes were tearing.

"Kitty you know I didn't mean to hurt your feelings... and the Christmas thing isn't that big a deal for me. I haven't even really cared much about it since all of my family was together... and that was years ago. I'll drop it," I told Kitty.

"You mean it?" she wiped one of her eyes.

"I mean it," I wiped her other eye.

"Hanaka was last week... so you can't really make up that way if that's what you were planning to do," Kitty pointed out.

"Oh... Kitty I really am sorry," I apologized again.

"I know..." Kitty said weakly.

I kissed Kitty on the forehead and repeated, "I REALLY am sorry. I should have been more considerate."

Kitty looked into my eyes and grinned a little, "You're lucky you're cute."

"You're the cute one," I corrected her.

---Christmas Eve...---

Kitty and I were dancing to Christmas carols in the living room. We worked out our problems with the holidays. We decided that we'd spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with each other but we wouldn't be celebrating the actual holiday. Kitty also told me to not buy her anything at all. I didn't get much say in the situation. And the icing on the cake was that I couldn't go out superheroing. I wasn't planning to anyway. Kitty just told me how things were going to work and I just kind of agreed. I wasn't expecting it to be that great especially considering how much Kitty had been on my ass lately about everything. Thing is it actually turned out to be the opposite. Kitty was her normal nice self again and we were enjoying ourselves just like everyone else.

"Jason, you have a call," Emma told me.  
"I'll be back in sec," I kissed Kitty before I stepped out of the room. "Hello?" I answered the phone.  
"Hey, Jason. It's Kate. I know it's Christmas Eve and all but Vision said he found a HYDRA base and we should probrably go in and stop them now while we still can," Kate explained.  
"How long do you think it'll take?" I asked.  
"Maybe an hour?" Kate estimated.  
"Okay, I'm in. Gimme 5 minutes," I told Kate before hanging up. I walked back into the living room, "Change of plans Kitty. I gotta go out for like an hour."  
"But you promised," Kitty complained.  
"I know, it shouldn't take too long. I promise. I don't wanna ruin this night but I gotta leave, just for an hour. It's just a HYDRA base, no supervillains or anything that big. I promise I'll be back," I told Kitty.  
"Fine... but you owe me," Kitty kissed me, and then hugged me before I headed for the subbasement.


	2. Winter Soldier

---Rooftop, 4 minutes later...---

"You're sure they're in there?" I asked Vision. It snowing and freezing. I could tell Kate was cold because her nipples were hard(I shouldn't have been looking but it was hard not to). Only Hawkeye, Patriot and Vision were here. Speed, Hulkling, Wiccan, and Stature weren't able to help out on this one. I was jealous of them, I wish I was able to say no and still be at the X-Mansion.  
"They're not even coming up on thermal scan," Kate added.  
"I assure you it is there, Kate. They are simply masking all heat and motion. Quite sophisticated system," Vision assured us.  
"Like we can't handle this ourselves sophisticatd? Or, we better do this fast and bounce sophisticated?" Patriot asked.  
"There are interesting odds on either side of that equation Patriot. But if I were forced to make an estimate I would choose the latter," Vision answered.  
"What?" Patriot asked.  
"He said we hit 'em fast and run," Kate explained.  
"Wonder how many of them there are," I stared down at the building.  
"Well considering it's Christmas eve and terrorist don't care about holidays... a lot more than we're hoping for," Kate answered.  
"I'm calculating a plan as we speak that will do maximum damage and easily allow our escape. There are 3 variables I still need to-" Vision started. My spider sense went off when he said "need to".  
"Hey, I wouldn't do that if I were you," a man came up on the rooftop right by us. He was some form of solider, he had a mask like Patriot's(but blue), and his left arm appeared metal(and had a star on the shoulder).  
"Make that 4 variables," Vision corrected himself.  
Patriot rolled out of the way as Hawkeye loaded her bow with an arrow and I shot a webline at him. He dodged the arrow and the webbing. He even caught Patriot's shield that was thrown at him while we he was dodging. He threw it at Hawkeye. Vision flew straight at the guy and stuck his hands through the guy and finally caused some damage. "You hurt my friend," he stated.  
"Not as much as I'm going to hurt... you... if you don't take your hands out of my insides," he struggled. "Can't you tell who the enemy is anymore? Nick Fury sent me to stop you... from stepping in his mess..."  
"Fury?" Vision and I asked simotaneously. Nick Fury was the head of SHIELD. Not too long ago he kind of just disappeared. No one knew what happened to him. Naturally he was replaced at SHIELD considering his ongoing absense. Vision removed his hands, the man dropped to his knees.  
"Prove it," Patriot said.  
"I didn't take your girlfriend's head off with Cap's old shield. That should be enough proof," he said.  
"Leave him alone. I'm okay," Hawkeye walked over to us.  
"I believe he's telling the truth. But what interest does Nick Fury have in this?" Vision asked.  
"Because-" he started. My spider sense went off when we heard a noise. "Damn it." He grabbed one of Hawkeye's arrows and threw it at the HYDRA solider that burst through the door and it implaed him in the adam's apple killing him instantly.  
"Omigod! You just... you...," Hawkeye started.  
"Killed a terrorist? Yeah pretty much," he said. "But don't worry. There'll be 2 more to take his place."  
"Who is this guy?" I muttered.  
"Beats me," Hawkeye whispered back.  
"You kids aren't up for this," the unknown man started down the stairs.  
"Hey!" Patriot called after him. "You don't know us or what we're up for or what we've been though."  
"We won't kill anyone," Hawkeye added. "But we want to help. We know who HYDRA are."  
"And more importantly we know what they do," Vision added.  
"We're a lot stronger than you think," I added.  
He was apparently talking with Fury on a headset cuz he was muttering to himself a bit. "All right, but we do this fast and you my all of my orders," he finally said.  
"I just said we wouldn't kill anyone," Hawkeye said.  
"Then hope I don't give you an order to. This is HYDRA, they won't hesitate to kill any of you."

HYDRA Soliders weren't too hard to fight. The only problem was there were so many of them. Other than that it was fine. I just didn't like the idea of taking orders from a guy who wouldn't even giver us a name to call him by. Seriously, who doesn't even make up a name for people to call him. I found that really annoying. Finally we managed to take down all of the HYDRA soliders and we watched the base burn from a rooftop across the street. "All right kids. Vanish, before S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up to remindd you what a bunch of pansies HYDRA really is," the unknown solider told us.  
"Pansies? Seriously dude, what century are you from?" Hawkeye asked. "Oh. Sorry, that is just so insensative. Some of our best friends are-"  
"I meant wimps," he interjected. "What can I say? I'm not from around here. Now getting moving cuz I'm not gonna bail you out again."

later in Central Park "How interesting. I never would have guessed," Vision said.  
"What?" I asked.  
"I've just run a comparison face and combat movement analysis through the old Avengers database in an attempt to ascertain the identity of our new ally," Vision explained.  
"Who is he?" Hawkeye asked.  
"Bucky," he answered.  
"Bucky?" Patriot, Hawkeye, and I were baffled.  
"World War II Bucky?" I asked.  
Vision nodded.

---Later in a graveyard...---

We decided we would go say a proper goodbye to Bucky so Vision tracked him to a graveyard. When he heard a noise he ducked behind a tombstone and pulled his gun on us.  
"Okay, now who's over-reacting?" I asked.  
"You followed me?" he asked. "No way. I'd have spotted you."  
"You couldn't spot me, I'm afraid," Vision floated.  
"Yeah, guess not," Bucky replied. "That still doesn't explain why you're here. This is clearly a private moment."  
"Yeah, we uh... didn't realize. I mean, it's Christmas Eve ya know? We thought you were going to your secret hideout not-" Hawkeye tried to explain.  
"I apologize sir. It's my fault. I should have kept it to myself," Vision apologized.  
"Should've kept what to yourself?" he asked.  
"He... well that is to say, Vision has the Avengers database in his hard drive and-" Kate started.  
"We know who you really are, Mr. Barnes," Patriot said knowing Kate may explain too thoroughly and ramble a bit.  
"No Eli, you don't," Bucky started to walk away.  
"We didn't mean to intrude or bug you,"Kate said.  
"We just wanted to say something to you," Patriot said.  
"And that is?" he asked.  
"It was an honor Bucky," we saluted him.  
"Merry Christmas," Eli said before he left.  
"Merry Christmas," Kate, Vision and I said back.  
Then I realized something, "Vision, what time is it?"  
"12:35 AM," he replied.  
"Ahh... great. I told Kitty I'd be back in an hour," I smacked my forehead, which hurt a lot considering how cold it was.  
"She'll probrably understand. I mean, how many times do you get to meet Bucky?" Kate told me.  
"Yeah I guess so. I just feel bad that I didn't keep my promise. That's all," I sighed.

I walked into my room and saw that Kitty was asleep in my bed. I felt bad that I made her wait for me. I climbed into the bed trying not to wake Kitty.  
"You said an hour," she groaned.  
"I know. I'm so sorry, something happened and... I'll tell you in the morning," I told Kitty.  
" You jerk," Kitty told me. "I love you."  
"Love you too," I put my arm around her and went to sleep.

When I woke up I saw that Kitty was still sleeping in my arms. She looked like an angel when she slept. I just looked at her and held her for a while until she woke up. "Hey," I smiled at her.  
"Hey yourself," she kissed me. I kissed her back. We started to make out a bit.  
"Know how much I love you?" I asked Kitty.  
"How much?" she giggled.  
"That I start to miss you before we're apart," I kissed her.  
"What would I do without you?" Kitty kissed me back. "You miss me yet cuz I gotta go to the bathroom."  
"Yeah... well I'm kinda hungry. I'll meet you in the kitchen," I kissed Kitty one last time before we both got out of bed and left the room, she turned right and I turned left. When I got to the bottom of the stairs I passed Laura. "Merry Christmas," I greeted her. Okay I know what you're thinking but I only agreed to not treat this as Christmas with Kitty. There wasn't anything wrong with saying it to other people.  
"Merry Christmas," she said back. A few seconds later she said, "Jason?"  
"Yeah?" I asked turning back to her.  
"I don't understand why Christmas is celebrated," she said.  
"Oh, I could help with that. Well about 2000 years ago-" I started.  
"I understand the religious aspect but I don't understand why it's celebrated this way: giving people gifts and all that type of stuff," Laura specified. That was one thing about Laura. She knew a lot when it came to tactical type things but other things she didn't know so well. From what I know she's been with the X-Men about 9-10 months now. Before she sort of drifted around. This must've been her first Christmas here.  
"Okay... umm..." I searched for a way to explain it. Then a lightbulb clicked in my head, "Oh! Well you see, since Christmas is the birthday of Jesus we pay respect to him by giving each other gifts which in a way is like giving him a gift because the best gift we could get him is happiness for others because he was such a self-sacrificing person."  
"I see. Where does Santa come in?" Laura asked.  
"Um... I honestly don't know. I know he's got almost nothing if anything to do with the religious side of Christmas," I said.  
"Thanks," Laura told me before she left.

---7PM...---

Kitty and I walked through the courtyard arm in arm as it snowed. It felt like a dream, nothing was going wrong and I was with Kitty. This whole day was great. I really deserved it after everything I've went through over the recent years: Mom and Dad dying, finding out I was a mutant, discovering Nathan was alright, not mentioning saving countless lives on a daily basis. Christmas almost seemed to make time stop for Kitty and I. " love you, more than anything else in this world Kitty," I told her.  
"I love you too," she smiled back. Suddenly we saw a shooting star. "Make a wish."  
"I wish that time could stop around us so we could be like this forever," I told Kitty before I kissed her softly on the lips.


End file.
